The widdly fiddle-de-de opening was almost too much for me, and was expecting some super syrupy power metal, but instead got some super syrupy melodic death metal (sic) nonsense. Pretty awful really. The shouty tough guy vocals don't help, and this is just sooooo far away from anything I would equivocate with "good''. Relentlessly bouncy, overly melodic and there is a solo in there I think? Or it could have been someone's phone ringing in the studio, or a modem, hard to tell through all the shredding. Maybe it was a keytar? I have no freaking idea, as they are keys almost everywhere. The clean vocals also don't help, or add anything - just another clean vocal chorus/bridge thing wedged in there. They sure do love chugging too with more keyboards because why not. Listened to it three times and can't really remember much about it. This was truly horrible.

I like early My Dying Bride (first two EP's and first full length album) and I'm a fan of old school death metal but for some reason this is one of their tunes that never clicked and the reason for that is very simple. To me it feels like My Dying Bride wasting their talents going for a simple death metal approach. I like My Dying Bride when they slow down and speed up which to me is a nice contrast between their doom and death metal style but aside from the intro riff, the tune really grabs me by the ears despite the band being at basically their most aggressive here - I just miss the slower, cryptic moments that make my favorite tunes of them so good. To me the band were far better off going for longer monoliths such as ''Sear Me'', '' The Return of the Beautiful'' and ''Symphonaire Infernus Et Spera Empyrium'' to name a few.

Well, this takes its time to get going. I didn't care much for that intro. It set no atmosphere whatsoever and it didn't lead well into the chaos that ensued after with those blistering riffs and growls. The death growls are really really good even though they lack variation...but then so does the riffing. What keeps things interesting is the pacing; it shifts and staggers and provides a much needed air of tension before breaking nicely apart around the 5 minute mark. After wards, comes the inevitable slow doom trudge to well, nothingness. The My Dying Bride influences are painfully displayed by this band but there's enough filth to earn them their own identity; something unprocessed and dirty about the entire sound and aesthetic of them. Overall, quite entertaining.

Virgin Steele are legendary yet I've never heard a single song from them in all my years, until now. This is a slow-tempoed track with a slight blues groove. Almost get an early 90s Overkill vibe from this. The main riff is ok. I'm not big on the bluesy vibe. The vocals would take some getting used to, I really don't like that he does not use his full voice when singing the higher notes. Also, he actually says "rawr", like he's a jungle cat or something, and he should never do it again. About halfway through though it does change into a kickass instrumental part with a shredding solo and into a nice series of chords changes. Here even the vocals sound better, with an Eastern-sounding melody. But I'm really not a fan of that main groove or the vocals. I'm willing to bet not all Virgin Steele sounds like this though.

The heavy doom-ish guitars remind me of Sabbath mixed with Primordial. The vocals were of an older clean power-metal or classic metal singing, which was unexpected. Very heavy part 2/3 of the way in reminded me of Morbid Angel. A bit slow for my taste, but I'm curious to know more.

I have to say that the atmosphere of this is intriguing. It's like black metal played through a post-rock formula, all mixed into a very airy, but tense atmosphere. The rock melodies at around the 3-minute mark were dragging, but when the song speeds up and the vocals come in again for the crescendo, it becomes really good. A pinch of additional heaviness would help the track's impact, but overall, worth checking out.

"Of Terror and the Supernatural by Temple of Void is miles ahead of It's midnight in Neverland and I can't get my dick out of this unicorn; Volume 8 by Nightwish in both the amount of heaviness and lack of keyboards."

If I didn't know better, I'd think the band plays progressive metal judging by its flashy intro but apparently this is an experimental brutal death metal band. My first complaint is that it's just very clean sounding - a grittier guitar tone would have been something I'd prefer by a long shot. I also notice how the rhythm guitar gets a bit overshadowed by the lead guitar which isn't a plus, either...not to mention that lead motif that keeps popping up started to frustrate me quickly quite a bit. Vocals aren't as harsh as I had imagined; certainly gruff and thick but not as deep or guttural as I had expected. The song itself seems quite adventurous and ambitious, I'm certain, but the riffs just don't really pick up for me although that tremolo picked riff near the end comes off promising, it's just a bit too late considering the song's about to end at that point! Can't say that it's my thing at all.

This is quite bizarre. It sounds like an amalgamation of cheesy, quasi-symphonic power metal, and Death's technical era, except with old-school raw guitars, and very aggressive growled vocals. The production is on the raw side, with thin, scooped guitar tone, warm but weak bass guitar, and the drums sounding quite organic, but rather thin. The keyboards sit very poorly in the mix, looming ubiquitously in the background of the aural image, and the parts written for them stick out nastily as hackneyed and ill-fitting for any of the multitude of musical contexts the song clumsily attempts to tie together. It's difficult to make any sense of the song. The structure is disjointed, and vocals are sporadically laid out, changing style from guttural death growls to some muffled mumbling, and there's absolutely no overarching theme or cohesion to the song, as it moves on from passage to another, changing key and mood at every turn.

The track almost immediately begins with a hellish scream, accompanied by blast beats. Shortly thereafter the guitars pick up into a strange rhythm: one seems to progress normally, while the other is content with an odd sounding chord progression. The rest of the music, to me, sounds fairly standard for black metal. The vocals are good, though nothing really stands out as exceptional or particularly interesting. It's a decent track all in all, and I'd give it a 6/10.

This could almost be by Bathory if not for those vocals...or by Fates Warning if it had better riffing. The pacing definitely puts it somewhere between those two bands but those two bands are also miles ahead of this. The riffs are really indistinguishable and the song is disappointingly vocal driven but there's atmosphere aplenty which has always made this band stand out from a lot of the trad metal ilk. The guitar solos are simply delicious and the drumming has that undeniable raw old school feel to it. The song is also rather anthemic in a way that makes you want to grab the lyrics sheet so you can sing along. The vocalist sounds like he is Geddy Lee after being punched in the stomach.

I'm quite a fan of the Inner Ascendance demo that this band did but their debut just doesn't do much for me. First the vocals are still brilliant here; the vocalist is an enthusiastic wailer in the vein of Tate, Midnight and whatnot. You recognize that tone once you hear it. Style wise I'd still describe this as USPM than anything else, so this should really be my thing. My problem with this is how it just doesn't move me a lot. It lacks both that emotional power and onslaught guitar work of their demo. Intro takes a while but then the vocals kick in the riffs plod along. It's not until 2:10 that my interest gets raised somewhat, with a far better riff popping up. Things speed up afterwards before things break up and that cool riff pops up again...and then it ends! To me this is the kind of USPM that people would like because it came out in a time where USPM wasn't around as much. It's certainly something of in that style, but since it's not really doing much for me I'd rather listen to other bands who did something similar around that time.

Sounds like the early 90s. Without looking at their ma page at all i am going to guess 1993. Doomladen death metal I guess you could call it. The band I thought of for comparison's sake was Sempiternal Deathreign, although they actually released their one album quite a bit earlier than 1993. This is mostly rather plodding, but there is a welcome, if all-too-brief, fast section where the guitarist gets to be a bit more active. You could tell that, as many such bands around this time, these guys were rather ambitious. they want to be melodious, but heavy. They want to show some progressive leanings in their songs. They throw in almost unfitting bass flourishes like Darkthrone did on Soulside Journey. The keyboards are actually welcome; they don't overuse them and their sound compliments the strings rather well. They never seem to let loose enough for me though, and all the while I was waiting for a guitar solo or something a bit more interesting, but when it finally came it wasn't really all that satisfying, and that tone is a bit thin and powerless and doesn't do the band any favours. Vocals are completely non-descript and I forget about them the moment he stops growling. I fancy that I know a bit about this sort of music, but I don't recall hearing of these fellows before. The potential is there but I feel they needed . to improve things quite a bit before they could be great. Wonder if they ever managed it? Will look them up.

I recall having checked out this band at a time, but it must have been a while ago. The first thing that I thought of while hearing this was something Chuck Schuldiner would have come up with if only his music was more doom/death metal oriented. If anything, I find this to be very clinical sounding as opposite to romantic or aggressive sounding. That introduction riff made me think of something you'd hear on Individual Thought Patterns even though this came out a year earlier. The chorus has a neat recognizable old school death metal flavor to it that recalls Death's 1987/1988 riffs. What's bothering me is how there are plenty of musical shifts and whatnot as the band never sticks to one riff too long which doesn't really do it for me. There are some fine leads popping up from time to time and the vocals are tolerable, but the song itself doesn't come off as something too cohesive as far as I'm concerned. I can see its appeal, but it's not really my thing.

A little bit of a mixture of everything here: black/doom riffs, death metal vocals, keyboards that range from airy to overpowering, a few leads that remind one (or maybe just me) of 70's rock, hell even what sounds like pan flutes in the beginning. Yet, it all works and flows nicely; the whole song feels like it's building to something. For those who like their euro metal "kvlt" but with something different thrown in, this is good stuff.

Ah, In Solitude... Saw them live twice and then suddenly they were gone. Such a shame since i think they really hit their stride with their third and final album. Anyway, great track. The lead guitar work by Niklas Lindström and Henrik Palm is second to none. Catchy as fuck riffs and solid rhythm section. And Pelle Åhman's amazing vocals give off this cool 80's new wave Sisters of Mercy vibe. These guys were definitely a breath of fresh air at the time and are sorely missed. Could listen to this song (and album) all day long!

Ok so this is the first time I've heard post-Blodhemn Enslaved, apart from a few tracks here and there from their later "avant-garde masterpieces". I know this album was the first to bring in the prog, and I guess my first observation is.... yeah, it shows. This song is essentially a couple of different songs melded into one a little clumsily. It still has that early Enslaved guitar tone I like - very raw/unpolished, and there are some cool sections here (especially the first with the clean vocals), but then it just seems to break every couple of seconds into something new - half-time, frenetic bm, some jazzy number, etc. And the clean guitars sound horrible - sounds like the onboard chorus from a practice amp recorded at low volume. Overall this suffers from the same problem as Opeth's first two - the band clearly hasn't worked out how to fuse its ideas yet (and I know they did later on). I know a lot of people would say this makes it "brilliantly chaotic" or something, but truth is it just comes off as amateur to these ears. That being said, a lot of these individual ideas would've made 2-3min songs on their own. It's just a shame that you really only hear it once and then it's gone.

By the time of this release (Jumalten aika), it has been 10 years since what I consider to be Moonsorrow's golden age - when they moved on from folk metal towards a style that was not only more expansive, even cinematic, but also with a substantial amount of energy injected by outright black metal influences. Savage riffing and greater heights of epicness than ever.

Suden tunti features promiment elements of that same idea, but much condensed. The riffs are stompy and menacing, but not quite with that same furious bloodthirst. The song structure and progression of chords shoots for the same epicness, but it seems that every time the song is about to build up enough momentum to launch into a properly intense part, the progression stalls and begins another ascent. The music is atmospheric, but quite as chilling and brutally dark. The band's strengths seem to have shifted, and unfortunately this song fails to capitalise on those.

That said, it's still very good, and only seems weaker in comparison to the brilliance of Verisäkeet and V. Those albums have made an ineffaceable impression on me, and I simply can't judge any Moonsorrow material without comparing it to those masterworks - invariably unfavourably.

Kinda odd intro, I'd never heard these guys before, so I had no idea what I was about to hear. After the intro the song totally explodes and I don't think I was ready haha They have this really evil and intense guitar riff that I'm loving and even after the riff disappears for a while the intensity of the song doesn't drop one bit. They have a really good song structure that keeps transitions smooth and the build ups will have your mouth watering for the next part. It's a really good song. I'll be honest though, I'm almost never in the mood for music like this, so I probably won't add it until my day to day listening but it is a really good song and fans of the band and genre will love it. Listening to it a second time felt shorter then the first listen and they leave off with that first riff which really leaves me craving for more.

THis is really awesome...short and sweet. I get a Rainbow vibe, like on one of the simpler Rainbow tunes like "Do You Close Your Eyes?" It is certainly groovier but in a throwback style that it could have easily stepped out of that same era and those lyrics are of that age too. The way the solo grows is also fascinating stuff to hear. A cool retro vibe yet still sounding passionate enough to render it interesting.

It starts out promisingly, anticipatory of an interesting, eerie kind of atmospheric/alternative rock. Then Holmes' half-shouting vocals come in (not the clean ones, they're fine). Vocals in this fashion are the bane of my existence and very much spoil the entire music for me. However, the riffs themselves deserve to be commended for their somewhat atonal and ethereal approach, which is rather unusual for grunge-influenced music like this. Their atonality, as a result, make me imagine something altogether more interesting going on than just some Fred Durst-like bloke with dreads pulling angst-ridden faces at the microphone. They're also just really catchy. Again, though, I'm really not liking Holmes' approach here.

A good song nearly ruined by the absurd over earnestness of the vocalist and the lack of distinct riffs and the inaudible and lazily paced drumming and the....seriously, this has all the hallmarks of good anthemic songwriting but it just doesn't sound STRONG enough to grab your attention. The melodies aren't that searing and the rhythmic construction is so mild. All I get from this band is potential but on this particular song they don't deliver.

funeral doom/death metal eh? There's a good reason why I never bothered checking out more of this stuff after hearing some of Ahab and Thergothon. This introduction is quite adorable but once the guitars kick in, my attention gets totally lost. I can see why person would consider this atmospheric and all but to me it's so one dimensional even a 6 minute track like this feels way overlong. The guitars just don't really do anything and I wish more of these kind of doom metal bands wouldn't just rely on heavy productions but also surprise you with a strong riff here and there. The vocals are fine and all but if the entire album is like this (which I bet it is), I'd be asleep by the end of this album.

I love me some black/thrash but this particular song doesn't quite excite me as it should. It creates a pretty hellish atmosphere, as this kind of metal should, but the drummer never really rips it out here. The guy's always hindered by drum fills, which creates tension, but said tension is never really let out. It's too slow to pump you up, but it also doesn't really linger on its atmospheric potential that much (like, for instance, typical Mystifier or Samael do) to make it so interesting to listen to. I don't really know this band so I can't judge them as a whole, but, yeah, this song's just OK I guess.

it would be an understatement to call monolithic the beginning of this song: the mix between the slow Celtic Frost-inspired riff and the massive rumble of the bass drum sounds ominous. The song builds and builds speed then suddently takes an unexpected turn into a clean, gothic rock section that sounds like it came straight outta Katatonia's Dance of December Souls, soon joined by distorted chords that mirror the main melody, creating a gloomy finale.

Really generic black metal with too much of that "norsecore" thing going on (ie an overtly percussive, driving nature, loud production, ho-hum tremolo picking etc). Aside from slowing slightly in the middle, the song just keeps going on and on in a 4 minute run-time, never breathing or changing things up.

First few seconds come on and my impression is it's fairly standard modern-thrash. Opening riff is almost groove-metal, but fast enough to get the head banging in true thrash fashion. My thoughts turn to the production as the song continues, very clean, drums are snappy and guitars punchy. A bit more polished than I like my thrash but instruments are played with proficiency (begins to remind me of more modern Testament, but my thrash expertise is limited, not sure if this is an apt comparison). I am however, immediately impressed by the guitar work and to a lesser extent the drums. With about a minute left, I begin to reflect on how much I love the vocalist. Like a ballsier Hetfield but with more vocal talent. Essentially my archetype of what perfect thrash vocals should be. Song closes with a ripping solo, done quite well. Enjoyable track, doesnt blow me away, but had fun listening, thank you!

Thought I was in for some standard 2nd wave necro black metal worship but this threw a lot of curve balls to keep it interesting. Very bouncy and hypnotic rhythm section keeps this stripped back number moving along nicely. Throw in some spoken word sections backed by an almost country twang to keep it leftfield and very much the product of a one-man vision. Around the 4 minute mark the tempo gains a sense of urgency and finishes off on a strong and triumphant note. Hails!

The Crown Eh? I've had the prejudice that they were a Gothenburg sounding band. At the same time I've heard people not fond of that style praising this band. Regardless, this sounds like a mixture of melodic death metal and some more thrash/Motörhead inspired stuff. Now the idea isn't exactly bad or anything (at least they're not aping Iron Maiden!) but I can't say I'm really getting excited of this thing. Tomas Lindberg's does vocals here and I never cared so much about his shrieks beyond the debut of At The Gates. I can tell the guitarists were trying, but I can't say these riffs really make me move my head, swing my head or even dance. The best parts are those Motörhead inspired moments, even if they're short. The drummer can throw in some blastbeats as long as he wants, but it doesn't get me convinced about this thing, either. So yeah, not a bad idea, but I'm just not fond of its execution.

It must have been about seventeen years ago that I checked this band out. Damn, that is a long time. I guess some of my feelings on the band stands then, as I hadn't heard a note since then but it's all coming back to me now. I didn't care much for the band's first album and never listened much to the second. It didn't help that at that time i was more into reading band interviews, and I came across one from these guys where they went on a silly rant, coming off as racist and bitter about nothing worthwhle in particular. But it was so long ago that I barely remember and I shouldn't really hold it against them, especially as it might have just been "The Guy Who Sings" or something.

Those are some nice melodious guitars, for sure. They have the same weird issue that some people find with old Septic Flesh: the vocals seem a lot more ... "brutal", for want of a better word, than the music calls for. I don't seem to mind this in Septic Flesh overly, but here it's just not sitting right with me. I feel like he wants to be singing in some uS-style detah metal band, from Florida or maybe New York. yeah it's forceful and strong, but I feel like it, and to a certain extent the production of all the instrumentation, works against the music. Nevertheless, the guitarwork is cool and even the part before the doomy second of the song, which reminds me of something off The Jester Race from In Flames, is rather effective. The drop into a doomy section after this point feels awkward to me and I had to check to see if Youtube had loaded another song, but no. There are keyboards too, and they really help to accentuate that sorrowful ending. Almost make me think of My Dying Bride, or similar bands that were rather popular in the mid-90s. The song isn't bad at all, but I'm still not sure I'm going to try an album again. There's something sloppy about the whole presentation that puts me off a bit. You always pick stuff with interesting guitars, though, Colin, and this is definitely no exception.

This is, uh... really weird. First half is a really bizarre, atmospheric build up with some subtly strange instrumentation. I mean, is that a freaking kazoo in the background, following the clean guitar? Definitely sounds like it, at the very least. It's nice though, and if this had an accompanying music video, I feel like this quieter section would consist of mainly fast forwarded footage of seedy rural areas or something like that. I guess the spoken narration contributes a lot to that; I have no idea what language this is, but the deep, casual intonation of the words is quite ominous. Then we have this nice and delicate drum and sorta Spanish guitar transition into some serious fucking black metal riffing. Despite the presence of typical tremolo riffing, these guys still have a bit of a more classic heavy metal flair in the melodic leaning of the riffs. Reminds me of old school Immortal a tad, in that sense. Vocals are suitably strange for the already hard to describe music, with a kind of anguished, pained quality to them, though still far from all out shrieking. And they throw me yet another curve ball at the end, with a synthesized (?) tribal drum outro that probably segues off into another song when put in the context of the album.

I also feel the need to talk about just how fucking gorgeous the production on this is. It's so warm and sunny, though in a very natural, effortless way. It gives the music a familiar feeling, like you can associate it with trips in deserted fields and lazy walks in the woods back when you were a child. It's a nostalgic sort of feeling, evoking the sort of dreamlike haze you rarely associate with metal music in general. It's a trip, man.

This starts off with some nice crunchy mid-paced riffs, switches into a quiet lament, then into a wicked chorus that kicks. Classic metal vibe. Good songwriting, plenty of variation in the riffing and rhythms, the keys are used tastefully not distractingly in a way that adds some distant atmosphere. Soloing is pretty great, clean and nasty. The only thing I'd detract points for so far is the singer's voice - not his phrasing or melodies though, solid in those depts, and he can hit the notes, it's just his timbre , not for me. The chorus is pretty much the tie that binds. Dug this!

Personally I loved the whole melodic death-meets doom-y-something kind of approach of the song and I told people earlier that those early releases of the band make me think of a melodic death metal variant of early Septic Flesh or something along those lines. I think you can definitely tell that this was a (typical?) 90's release though - taking influences from plenty of sources and melt it into one oddball. Also thanks for your kind words, it's a pleasure sharing stuff I find unusual and interesting with others.

I love the intro to this song. That creepy-crawly, solitary bass line. It reminds me a lot of one of my favorite bands, Mortuary Drape. I have to say the similarities don't stop there. Even once the guitars smash into the mix and the race begins, it still sounds somewhat like black metal, with that tight, circular, quick-repeating guitar riff. The scratchy guitar tone reminds me of Envenom. The vocals don't do a lot for me but they aren't horrible. This is really cool, overall. I guess it's supposed to be some kind of death metal but it floats on the winds of very evil riffing. I'm definitely digging this!

You seemed to enjoy Lugubrum, and that's cool. The chances were about fifty fifty (or something) that it'd get someone who hated it. They are a weird band but once you get it, there's just no turning back. Not sure if you were familiar at all before now but it sounds like you pinpointed their kind of aesthetic from the sound exactly. Of course, this is from the Arabic/Mid-east-inspired album, but I guess they are speaking Flemmish. I always look for the eccentric metal bands and Lugubrum have had me ensnared ever since their "Darkthrone-on-crack" De Totem album.

Order from Chaos: "Winds of Perdition"

Whoa. What's this from? I have to say that, for whatever reason, I just never really got into this band. Not sure what it was about their sound. Maybe the vocals, which -- ok, I'm not a fan of Angel Corpse, or Revenge, either, and I think at least half the reason is this guy's near-constant gabbling. But look, I have to say, this was pretty fucking beastly, and if this is from Stillbirth machine, I guess i really should re-investigate it.

It sounds raw as hell, and when I say "raw", I mean something very specific: the sound of a band playing in a small room, right there in front of you. I don't remember the album sounding quite like this. I do like it this way. The vocals sound better, too, still having a rabid, animalistic quality but also not really able to overpower anything, because after all, it's REALLY FUCKING LOUD in that rehearsal room, innit? I love the primal, slaughteringFrosty riff at the outset, and when it picks up speed, it's really exciting! Also a bit frightening. You know, this is the metal your elders warned you about. It sounds like smashing skulls. Oh, it has that kind of rehearsal room sound, right down to the loud, hissing cymbals, but after years, i'm really used to this and find it fitting. Those noisy lead guitar parts are awesome. This is just classic death metal through and through, with a more bestial sound than most. Like Celtic Frost as played by a bunch of cavemen or something, although I think the lead guitar (not that there's a ton of it) is probably better. In this context, the furious venom-spitting of that Pete guy on the mic actually pleases me, too: he sounds young and dangerous and I don't think that microphone is long for this world.